Panel members: Don't rule out Lindbergh Field

SAN DIEGO —— Lindbergh Field in downtown San Diego cannot be
ruled out as the answer to the region's future airport needs
despite a recent survey that emphasized a new airport site, two
members of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority board said
Monday.

The board members, Xema Jacobson and Mary Sessom, questioned why
the survey asked 1,600 registered voters about a "new San Diego
regional airport" and did not ask more about expanding
Lindbergh.

Jacobson said it was wrong to suggest that the only task of the
airport authority established in 2003 is to find a site for a new
airport.

"That goes against where we are in this process and where we
should be," Jacobson said during a meeting of the authority's
strategic planning committee at the airport. "We're supposed to be
educating people with the facts."

Lindbergh is expected to reach its capacity to handle more
passengers and flights by 2015, and the authority must recommend a
site or an expansion of Lindbergh in time for a November 2006
ballot measure. An airport proposal would need a simple majority of
voters to pass.

Sessom said she did not believe that the nine-member authority
board has asked its staff to be sufficiently creative with ideas
for expanding Lindbergh, which saw 16 million passengers last year
and is the busiest single-runway airport in the nation.

"I have concerns we are pushing things toward a new site and we
really haven't studied Lindbergh," said Sessom, mayor of Lemon
Grove.

Besides Lindbergh, a yet-to-be-determined Imperial Valley desert
site and sites in Campo and Borrego Springs are being considered
for a new airport.

Five military bases remain on the original list of 32 potential
sites. They are March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, two
sites on Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, Camp
Pendleton and North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado. Pendleton
is widely considered to be untouchable.

Board member William Lynch challenged assertions that a
Lindbergh expansion would ultimately prove best, saying the
authority has to plan for the region's needs for the next quarter
century.

The region needs an airport capable of handling of handling 35
million passengers a year by 2030. Even if the adjacent Marine
Corps Recruit Depot was shut down in an upcoming round of military
base closures nationwide, that would not provide enough land for a
full second runway at the existing airport, Lynch said.

"I have not heard anyone with the expertise explain how we can
handle 35 million passengers at Lindbergh," he said. "At some
point, we have to come to the conclusion that Lindbergh may not be
the perfect solution."

A shorter, second runway could allow Lindbergh to add enough
airline capacity to handle about 25 million passengers, Lynch
said.

The survey prompting Monday's discussion was released last month
but not formally presented until Monday. It found that fewer than
half of the registered voters questioned would support building a
new airport or expanding Lindbergh.

When survey takers told voters the current airport would run out
of room in 10 years, more were willing to support a new airport or
the Lindbergh expansion.